One day, PETRIFICATION asked themselves "What does the mind of a demon-possessed corpse sound like, and can we record it?" and I'm sure the rest was history. There are a lot of Death Metal bands that preach unholy damnation to ringing, cavernous riffs, but PETRIFICATION calls them all amateurs and goes much further. I was not expecting the plague-riddled sounds that came dripping out of my speakers, let alone for the surprise of Jason Barnett's most impressive zombified vocal technique.

The disturbing-as-all-fuck "Prelude" had my skin crawling with a pervasive, unidentifiable sound. I want to say it's a crackling fire, but I think I'm just telling myself that so I won't admit it actually sounds like millions of crawling insects; or flesh cooking. Whatever it is, be cautious while listening with headphones on (lesson learned... *shudder*). From the moment "Prelude" started, I had a feeling all my hope was about to be violently juiced with a lemon reamer, so I tried to secret my hope away in a safe spot no one would think to look. It was useless. PETRIFICATION found it almost immediately. More specifically, "Arachne Exsanguine" did. It wrenched my hope from its hiding spot and devoured it slowly while I watched. Basically, I was off to a fabulous start as far as Death Metal bands go.

The other thing to surprise me was PETRIFICATION channeling some Punk, as well. The drums are a lot more subdued, and the tempo is slower, but there are definitely some signs of some early Punk influences. My only concern is that all the instruments threaten to blend into one another, the sounds almost completely homogenized. It's a small complaint, however. Think of it this way, PETRIFICATION is so corrosive, it tries to eat itself from the inside!

According to the band's biography, founder and guitarist WarVest (Tom Roberts) started PETRIFICATION after leaving his last band WAR MASTER in Houston to move to Portland, Oregon. The band's sound was created Mad Scientist-style; their inspirational material included Swedish, British and Finnish Death Metal influences. After chucking all those ingredients in a giant cauldron and letting simmer (and later fester), PETRIFICATION was created. WarVest's intentions were to create a band "more evil and heaver than anything he'd done before" ... Well, I'd say he succeeded!